As part of kindergarten’s first unit of inquiry, Who We Are, initial encounters between children and educators, as well as families, began with sharing information about ourselves, developing agreements and spending time together in the spaces of our learning community….
“Let nature be your teacher” William Wordsworth Our ongoing relationships with Hof Narr organic farm provides a wealth of learning opportunities for the children. Through their encounters with the animals, the orchard and the vegetable garden, the children explore…
Connecting Threads of Learning in Different Spaces As our class groups develop a growing sense of community, we intentionally plan learning provocations based on children’s interests which promote connections among our environments both indoor and outdoor. We aim to have threads of…
Ms. Claire surprised us with an overflowing bag of apples from a tree at her house. We presented the apples to the children in a basket in an inviting display. There was much interest and excitement with many children sharing that they…
After observing the children engaging in ‘restaurant role play‘ over a period of a few weeks, it was clear that this was yet another wonderful opportunity to encourage and foster their interest and embark on a class inquiry into restaurants. Following some…
Painting is something we do on a very regular basis in our Early Years classes. Most children of all ages love to paint and we, the Early Years educators, believe that they should be given many opportunities to do…
Within our year-long unit of inquiry, Sharing the Planet, we are inquiring into the different animals in our lives and our responsibility in caring for living things and the environment. Last week the children were given some recycling materials and they began…
Last Friday morning, Early Years families joined us for some shared classroom time, community singing and a presentation about our program. As members of an international school community, we have the unique experience of learning together with children and teachers…
In Early Years 2 we are learning that data can be recorded, organised, represented and summarised in a variety of ways to highlight similarities, differences and trends. After children from the Kindergarten classes visited us to ask us some survey…
We have spent the first weeks of school fostering a sense of community in the classroom. In the Early Years at ICS we believe that a strong sense of community and a supportive emotional environment provide a solid foundation for…